Simona Carini serves recipes and Italian words related to food

Soup

September 14, 2016

bright colors and flavors (napkin by La FABBRICA del LINO) A soup lover like me1 was excited to get a copy of Soup Swap: Comforting Recipes to Make and Share2 the new cookbook by Kathy Gunst3, Resident Chef for NPR's "Here and Now." If the idea of hosting or attending a Soup Swap Party sounds appealing is because it is: the book provides suggestions and tips for a successful event. Rest assured, though: you don't need to be planning a party to enjoy the book. Its recipes are dedicated to soup lovers of all sizes and flavors: they include vegetarian, vegan,...
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March 09, 2016

[cliccare il link per andare alla versione in italiano] soup with surprise (placemat by La FABBRICA del LINO) The 25th country of our World Culinary ABC1 is Armenia and the book I just finished reading is Still Writing by Dani Shapiro.2 The two events are connected because the book made me want to cook a special soup for the author and the list of traditional Armenian soups made me choose arganak: "chicken soup with small meatballs, garnished before serving with beaten egg yolks, lemon juice, and parsley"3 (tuorli, succo di limone e prezzemolo). Sounds appealing, doesn't it? The title of the...
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January 31, 2016

[cliccare il link per andare alla versione in italiano] an inviting bowl of soup (placemat by La FABBRICA del LINO) The 23rd country of our World Culinary ABC1 is New Zealand (Nuova Zelanda), a country we visited 11 years ago. I have a trunkful of great memories from the trip and only a thimbleful of space here, so the following is just a taste (assaggio). Karekare2, the beach made famous by the movie The Piano (North Island). We kayaked in many places, including the Kenepuru Sound (one of the Marlborough Sounds in the South Island) and Lake Manapouri4 (South Island). The...
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December 01, 2015

done with cutting crozets For me, the current selection of our Cook the Books Club, The Hundred-Foot Journey by Richard Morais, was a movie before it was a novel. Ten minutes into it, I started fidgeting. Five minutes later, my husband and I agreed it was not worth watching further. Nothing happened in that quarter of an hour to make us wonder what would happen next. With that history, I approached the book with caution and was pleasantly surprised. It is much better than the movie, at least until the midpoint: the story, the characters (particularly the protagonist's mother) and the...
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April 12, 2015

[cliccare il link per andare alla versione in italiano] a soup bright in color and flavor (cranberry-flax ciabatta by Beck's Bakery, linen napkin from La FABBRICA del LINO) The ninth stop of our World Culinary ABC1 is Egypt (Egitto). My original plan was to make ful medames2 again, this time using the traditional small fava beans, which I found in a newly discovered store in the Bay Area. Then two things happened: 1) I read about Moloukhiya3 soup, and 2) my spring CSA share at Redwood Roots Farm4 started. This soup features the leaves of a type of jute (Corchorus olitorius)...
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March 22, 2015

[cliccare il link per andare alla versione in italiano] western-style broth meets eastern-style rice noodles The eighth stop of our World Culinary ABC1 is Vietnam. To celebrate our virtual visit I made bun rice noodles from scratch. Making an Asian pasta had been on my to-do list for a long time. Having found a detailed recipe from a reputable source2, I went to work: the process was interesting and the result quite nice. The original recipe calls for a pound of rice flour, but I applied the rule I repeat in each of my pasta posts3 and quartered the quantities. Please,...
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March 15, 2015

[cliccare il link per andare alla versione in italiano] a simply good soup (linen napkin from La FABBRICA del LINO) Julius Knipl, Real Estate Photographer1 is the protagonist of Cheap Novelties, The Pleasures of Urban Decay2 by Ben Katchor. The collection of black and white strips reads like a collection of short-short stories simple on the surface, yet haunting like the dripping of a faucet that prevents us from falling asleep. Julius is out all day in a solidly urban landscape of tall buildings grouped into blocks drawn up by roads. Instead of the sun, a myriad light bulbs (lampadine) of...
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May 26, 2014

a few red beets give the soup its vibrant color In her book Funny in Pharsi, the current Cook the Books club's selection, author Firoozeh Dumas tells stories about her experience as an Iranian expatriate in Southern California. Some of the stories are funny, others less so, but the author tells them all with irony, so the reader is made to smile and at times laugh. Irony, however, is also a device behind which a writer can hide and this is what happens in this book. Being an expatriate myself, I am interested in reading other people's experience. The book reminded...
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October 20, 2013

[cliccare il link per andare alla versione in italiano] bright red and deeply flavored Some recipes (ricette) come out perfect the first time I make them and the following renditions serve to confirm the initial evaluation. Most recipes require a few tries before they are deemed ready to be shared. Each time I make an adjustment and compare the amended version with the previous one. I repeat the process until I am satisfied with the result. A small number of recipes are not worth investigating further than the first try. Finally, there are the rare cases, the recipes that I am...
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June 09, 2013

delicate petals within pasta On May 8, 1999, at the San Francisco Center for the Book, I had my first experience with letterpress printing. I learned about the California job case, how to set type and prepare the press, and together with the other class participants, printed a chapbook under the imprint of the "created for the day" Tiramisu Press. In the years that followed, I took a few other printing classes in the same location, and every time I was reminded how much I like the blend of boundless creativity and tight concentration that goes into printing. Mary Dern's short...
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To use any of the photographs published in the blog permission must be obtained from Simona
No food was (nor will ever be) discarded in the process of taking the photographs, i.e., everything was consumed either immediately or in due time